Director of Strategic Partnerships

Strategy Institute; Toronto; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Strategy Institute is launching Canada’s Wellness & Longevity LIVE Event in Toronto, a premium consumer experience uniting wellness, longevity, performance and brands. We seek a Director of Strategic Partnerships to build the commercial foundation, create bespoke collaborations, and close multi-year partnerships with senior marketing leaders.

You will engage CMOs, VP Marketing, and Heads of Partnerships, translating objectives into high-impact, immersive partnerships beyond traditional

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of relevant commercial experience.
• Proven track record selling to CMOs, VPs of Marketing or senior decision-makers.
• Ability to translate client objectives into customized proposals.
• Demonstrated capability to manage multi-stakeholder sales processes.

Responsibilities

• Build strategic relationships with senior marketing and partnerships leaders.
• Lead consultative sales and discovery meetings.
• Create bespoke, non-packaged partnerships.
• Present and close bespoke partnership proposals.
• Develop multi-year partnerships and long-term value.

Skills

Strategic partnerships

Brand partnerships

Integrated media sales

Experiential marketing

Sponsorship

Premium consumer events

Job description

Canada’s Wellness & Longevity LIVE Event

Toronto | Full-Time Contract | November 2026 – July 2027 | Potential to Become Permanent

BUILD THE FOUNDING PARTNERSHIPS BEHIND CANADA’S NEXT MAJOR WELLNESS EXPERIENCE

We are launching a new premium consumer event at the intersection of health, wellness, longevity and human performance.

Taking place in Toronto, June 18–20, 2027, Canada’s Wellness & Longevity LIVE Event will bring together leading experts, highly engaged consumers, health and wellness practitioners, creators and some of the world’s most exciting brands for three days of education, discovery, experiences and community.

We are looking for an exceptional Director, Strategic Partnerships to help build the commercial foundation of this new event.

This is NOT traditional conference sponsorship sales.

We aren’t looking for someone to simply sell booths and sponsorship packages. We are looking for someone who can sit across from a CMO, Head of Canada, VP Marketing or Head of Partnerships, understand what their organization is trying to accomplish, and create a compelling partnership around those objectives.

You will help bring some of Canada’s and the world’s most influential brands into the event from the beginning.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are building a focused portfolio of high-value strategic accounts across:

Wellness & Longevity | Fitness & Performance | Health Technology | Wearables | Nutrition | Beauty & Personal Care | Apparel | Financial Services | Hospitality | Retail | Consumer Lifestyle

Our targets include leading Canadian brands alongside ambitious international companies looking to build their presence and communities in Canada.

Your job is not simply to sell them an event.

Your job is to understand their business.

Why are they investing in Canada? Who are they trying to reach? What does their brand need to stand for? How are they building community? Where could a major live consumer experience create value?

Then you’ll work with our team to turn those objectives into partnerships that could include immersive brand experiences, content, community programming, product discovery, thought leadership, hospitality, digital amplification and ideas we haven’t created yet.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

BUILD STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS

Develop relationships with senior marketing, brand, partnerships and market leaders within a focused portfolio of priority accounts.

Open doors and create conversations at the CMO, VP and General Manager level.

LEAD CONSULTATIVE SALES

Research and prepare for each account.

Run discovery meetings that uncover the company’s business, marketing, consumer and Canadian growth objectives.

CREATE PARTNERSHIPS — NOT PACKAGES

Work with our leadership, marketing and event teams to translate client objectives into creative, commercially compelling partnerships.

For our largest partners, the answer may not exist in a sponsorship brochure.

You’ll help create it.

PRESENT AND CLOSE

Develop and present bespoke partnership recommendations.

Build the business case.

Navigate multiple stakeholders.

Negotiate commercial terms.

BUILD LONG-TERM VALUE

These aren’t intended to be one-event transactions.

You’ll help establish relationships with our inaugural partners that can grow into multi-year strategic partnerships.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

You may currently work in:

• Strategic partnerships
• Brand partnerships
• Integrated media sales
• Experiential marketing
• Sports or entertainment partnerships
• Premium consumer events
• Sponsorship
• Wellness, fitness or health
• A creative, media or experiential agency

Your exact background matters less than your ability to operate credibly with senior marketers and close substantial partnerships.

You will likely have 8–12+ years of relevant commercial experience, although exceptional candidates outside that range will be considered.

More importantly, you can demonstrate that you have:

• Built senior relationships with major consumer brands
• Sold to CMOs, VPs of Marketing and other senior decision-makers
• Led intelligent discovery conversations
• Turned business objectives into creative commercial solutions
• Developed and presented customized proposals
• Managed complex, multi-stakeholder sales processesNegotiated and closed significant five- and six-figure partnerships
• Created new business rather than simply managed existing accounts

You are comfortable starting with a blank page.

You are commercially ambitious, intellectually curious and highly credible in a senior client meeting.

And you know the difference between presenting an inventory of assets and solving a client’s business problem.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within your first several weeks, you understand the event’s positioning, audience and strategic partnership opportunity and have developed a clear approach to our highest-priority accounts.

You are opening senior-level conversations with the brands we most want associated with the event.

You understand what those companies are trying to accomplish before recommending anything.

You are developing ideas that make clients say:

“We hadn’t thought about doing that.”

And you are converting those ideas into meaningful commercial partnerships.

By June 2027, you will have played a major role in determining which brands helped launch Canada’s Wellness & Longevity LIVE Event.

WHY JOIN NOW?

Because this event isn’t being built around a legacy sponsorship model.

You’ll join while it is being created.

That means the right person will have considerable influence over the partnerships, commercial strategy and brand experiences that ultimately define the event.

You’ll work directly with senior leadership and have the freedom to pursue ambitious ideas.

And if the event develops as we believe it can, this initial launch role has the potential to grow into a long-term leadership position within the business.

COMPENSATION

We offer competitive senior-level base compensation plus uncapped performance-based earnings, with significant upside for an exceptional partnership seller.

The initial appointment will run through July 2027, following the inaugural event, with strong potential to become a permanent leadership role.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Canada’s Wellness & Longevity LIVE Event is being created by Strategy Institute, a Toronto-based conference and events company with approximately 30 years of experience producing executive events across North America.

The event represents an important new chapter for the company: a large-scale consumer experience built around one of the most important movements of our time — the growing desire to live healthier, feel better, perform better and live longer.

TORONTO | JUNE 18–20, 2027